I am a 34 year old ex pretty large person with a beautiful 4 yr old daughter.

I have never been a skinny person and as soon as I took a office job I rapidly expanded! Didn't really worry about it until a saw a picture of me one Christmas and though OMG!! Decided to join the gym and slowly lost a bit of weight.

In a moment of madness entered the 2006 London marathon, even though the furthest I had ever ran was 2 miles and my wife was pregnant and due to give birth in October.

Started proper training in October even though our Daughter Ellie-Mai had arrived, which meant being out of the door before 6am most days of the week but enjoyed the quiet/cold/rain for some reason!

Got my rejection letter in December but decided to get a golden bond place, Seafarers UK gave me one of their places, roll forward to April 23rd, I finished in 4hrs 9mins, very very chuffed with myself, especially as I had raised just under £1700 as well.

Ended up thinking about Triathlon when I had recovered from the run and had nothing to aim for. I can swim breaststroke all day long but have a lousy front crawl. Only have a mountain bike at the moment and am getting quicker, run I am not too bad at. Looking forward to training for the 4th discipline of spending on shiny toys...........

Not having been much of a sporty person for the majority of my life until I hit my early thirties means my trophy cabinet is pretty threadbare! But now, after picking up my first ever AG win earlier in the season at the East Coast Triathlon in Gt Yarmouth, I went into the Victory Triathlon with 3 hopes -

The Victory triathlon is a pool based super sprint at the Victory Swim & Fitness Centre in North Walsham. It consists of a 300m swim, 17km bike and a 3km run.

Registration and racking was swift and painless, and with the race briefing clearing up any issues I had in my head it was off the poolside to wait for the ladies to go firstly then the men.

Never really been much of a swimmer but have been working quite hard recently on improving my pace a little but Iím never going to be a the pointy end of the field especially as with the swim being in the pool, you started at one side, then it was a up & down each lane, duck under the ropes into the next lane for all of the six lanes. Not being able to tumble turn is a real disadvantage and costs quite a lot of time in comparison to those than can, so after being called into the water and counted down I was off. For me it was a decent swim and total time including the short run to the entrance of T1 I had posted a 5.36 swim time.

Through T1 in a very efficient time of 33s as I now never bother with gloves or socks, just helmet, number belt then shoes and I was away on the single loop 17km cycle which takes in a couple of little villages, using some quite fast flowing roads, a few rougher surface narrow country lanes and a bit of main road with a lumpy bit or too for good measure. I didnít manage to time any of the junctions too well as had to slow down for traffic at most of them but it was all round nice fast route and before I knew it I was back at the pool in a time of 28.44 which ended up as the second fastest bike of the day so very pleased with that!

T2 was again very smooth and I was away onto the run after 27s. The run had seemed to be the bit that was going to cause the biggest headache as although only 3km it was over 3 laps including the playing field and a little bit of Weavers Way and some road, but the race briefing had cleared it up quite nicely and before starting I took a walk round the loop with the family to get it clear in my head. After heading out of T2 I went off at a pace that was putting me a bit out of my comfort zone as it was roughly at my parkrun pace which gives a 21ish minute 5km, which is fine when that is all you are doing but not after a swim and bike! The 3 laps whizzed by and I was soon turning the corner to head towards the finish line. My wife has telling me lately that I need to try to ramp up the pace as head towards the finish so I did just that and gave it everything and sprinted over the line for a run time of 13.03

After a few minutes to recover I knew I had got close to my 50 minute target so headed over to the chip timing people to see what the time was, he advised that it was 48.22 and I was currently in 3rd place overall!!! I was more than a little shocked to be in a podium finish place but as there were still loads of people on the course I assumed that it wouldnít last but I could have a chance of the top 10 I wanted.

I went and got changed then headed back over to the timing as there were only 1 or 2 people still out on the course and he said I was still in 3rd place, I can safely say I have never been so pleased in all my life as I had never in my wildest hopes imagined I would ever finish on the podium at any triathlon. Not the flashiest trophy in the world mind you but def my most treasured!

Couple of weeks later and iím still grinning!
_________________Enjoy the little things, cos one day you will look back and realise they were the big things
Mud, Mud, Mud, gotta love Mud

Not having been much of a sporty person for the majority of my life until I hit my 30's means my trophy cabinet is pretty bare, apart from pool trophies which can't really be called sporting ones, more drinking and having a laugh ones!

But now, I am now the proud owner of an 40-44 age group winners trophy that I picked up at the East Coast Triathlon super sprint (300m/16km/3km)last weekend. I went into the event with 4 hopes -

1 - Don't be sh!t
2 - PB (got a 49.30 last year and hoped I could knock at least a minute off)
3 - Top 10 finish (should be do-able if I got the hoped for PB)
4 - AG Win (More wishful thinking than actual real chance)

Was feeling pretty decent as we set off didn't bother timing anything as it was chip timed, just setup the garmin so I could see my speed on the bike and left the rest up to my body to get round as fast as possible!

I was utterly ruined at the finish and can safely say I left pretty much nothing out on the course. It was at least 1 & 1/2 hours before the organisers announced that the results were up, headed over to find I had knocked 3 minutes off my PB to finish in 46.30, which gave me 7th place overall out of 119 finishers and more amazingly I had won my AG by a mere 12 seconds!!

The wife has been banging onto me about upping my speed at the finish of a run which I did for the last half mile or so and I think that it was probably that little injection gave me the small cushion that won me my AG.

Few days later and I'm still buzzing about it! _________________Enjoy the little things, cos one day you will look back and realise they were the big things
Mud, Mud, Mud, gotta love Mud

Chase the Rising Sun apart from the rain which we had for pretty much the last 50 miles was very enjoyable event and one I plan to do again as riding through the night is an all round pleasant experience!

The first 50 until the food station was a bit quicker than planned as I latched onto a pretty swift group and hit the halfway stop averaging over 20mph. Had a 45 minute wait for the rest of my team as one of them suffered a huge blow out which took a while to sort in the dark! Took the second half a bit easier and came home in 5hrs 22mins

Fritton Olympic Triathlon also went very well and I achieved my aim of a sub 2.30 for the first time with a 2.27.03 finish, swim was a nice easy affair and also managed a sub 30 open water 1500m for the first time! smashed the bike with a 23mph average on my road bike to get the 9th fastest bike out of almost 200 people. Run was a bit of a sufferfest but still enjoyed it, my wife and son were manning the water station near the finish on the run so my little boy came over the finish with me which he loved as he got loads of cheers

Next up is another sprint on the 17th July, I have achieved most of my minimum aims for the season so far, so hope to get one of my really hopeful aims at this sprint which is a top 10 finish, fingers crossed I can do it!_________________Enjoy the little things, cos one day you will look back and realise they were the big things
Mud, Mud, Mud, gotta love Mud